Don't forget the big picture

If there was ever a time for members of our community to practice their collective big-picture view of the world, this is it.

All publicly-funded organizations are heavy into discussions regarding their 2009-2010 fiscal budgets right now, and none of the news is very good. As far as input from the community, the Redmond School District has probably garnered the most interest, with an oddly skewed by-product.

The district has had some citizens at board and special meetings during the last few weeks, and set up a comments page on its Web site for budget questions and concerns.

What kind of suggestions are the parents, teachers, students and community members giving the district on how to meet its possible $7 million deficit for next year?

Well, it varies some but most follow the format of “Don’t cut (insert programming here) because my kid/I/students really benefit from it.”

Certainly, it’s important for the district to hear what classes and extra curricular programming have the most support and affect the most students. But if district officials have been paying attention, they probably already know that. What they don’t know, and aren’t really hearing from the majority of people who’ve shared opinions, it what to CUT.

Something has to go, and in fact many things will probably go. But many of the replies given the district seem to ignore this fact, and only obsess on what they want, what is important to their corner of the universe.

A student enrolled in the one of the small learning communities at Redmond High School says don’t cut that, a parent of a child receiving special education instruction is worried about cuts in that area, music lovers are distraught to learn music classes might go away, community members who see the benefit of physical education classes taught by specialists in that area can’t imagine cutting any PE is even an option. A parent angry about the district considering a four-day school week to save costs threatens to move their child to the Bend-La Pine School District, where, they are certain, their child will receive five full days of learning. A high school student worried about keeping competitive in the college-application arena suggests keeping all high school special programs such as AP classes and sports that might garner a scholarship, and instead cut all the extras at the elementary level.

A few alarmed at the possibility of losing as many as 82 teaching and support positions suggest cutting many of the administrative jobs, because they are sure the district is top heavy.
But in fact, looking at the number of administrators, teachers and support staff reported to the Oregon Department of Education for the 2007-08 school year, the impacts to all classifications of employees would be on a par: 15 percent of teachers, 14 percent of administrators and 10 percent of support staff would be eliminated under the latest proposal. And according to ODE, the Redmond School District’s student to non-teaching staff ratio in 2006 was 1-to-96, much less than Crook County’s 1-to-37.

In reality, the cuts will have to go so deep that no grade level, program area or class of employee will emerge unscathed. The loss will be incalculable. If music and physical education is shifted to classroom teachers at the elementary level, the impacts to the middle school and high school sports and arts programs will feel the fallout for years to come, as students arrive on their doorstep unprepared. The same can be said of extracurricular sports, or specialty programming like alternative education and advanced placement classes, which will take a long time to recover from the setbacks.

Oregon is very shortsighted in its funding mechanisms for schools. We are so dependent on a wildly fluctuating income stream: when times are good schools work hard to build programs that will strengthen student achievement and success after graduation, only to tear apart those programs when times are hard. After recovery, the cycle begins again but momentum is lost each time, impacting the overall health of our educational system and the education of our kids.

Does any of this debate help get an idea where the community thinks the district should make cuts?

Not so much. But they sure know what not to cut.